B2B Sales Strategy for Startups: A Simple Process to Start Selling
One of the most important tools for all startups to be successful is undoubtedly having a good sales strategy especially if they have business-to-business sales (B2B sales). One of the steps to B2B sales strategy success is to establish and follow comprehensive guidelines. Whatever the industry, employees must understand and adhere to a B2B sales framework that defines how they will perform in their roles.
How to build a B2B sales strategy in a startup company?
The first thing to do is to research your target market and identify the Total Addressable Market. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be ready to start the sales process that concerns the below steps;
Lead generation
The process of finding qualified leads is the cornerstone of any well-established sales strategy. It determines who is interested in your product and who you need to reach!
Discovery
Each salesperson should know all the details of their product. They should have a good understanding of their potential customers’ business as well. Before talking to them, they should try to understand the potential customer’s needs by laying the groundwork, so that they can offer them solutions. This research phase prepares you for sales discovery calls. For example; You can take a look at the latest customer behaviours on the web and social media. What did they comment on? What did they share? Have they written any articles or been featured in someone else’s articles? These insights can be great for building familiarity with your cold calling. As a result, although exploration may take some time, it will make your searches much more successful.
Qualification
Now that you’ve built the foundation, you can start searching for your potential customers. In the first part of your sales call, you should use a lead scoring system to assess the prospect’s suitability as a customer. Ask them open-ended questions. Use some basic business terminology. Focus on their problems and determine if you can solve them. If you can’t solve it, don’t force it! If you have a good lead flow, you have lots of other potential customers to talk to!
Field
At this point, you should have a good idea of the challenges the potential customer is facing. Only in this way can you present a sales pitch that is tailored to solve their problems. You should avoid detailed scenarios so that your potential customer can focus on your presentation and understand everything correctly. A good pitch should last an average of 30 seconds. During this time, you need to show the other person that you have done your research. Reach key value points that relate to them. For example; Specify the types of businesses that the potential client’s company expects. This is a great way to show you’ve done your research! Create anticipation and arouse curiosity. Avoid over-disclosure of your product or service; have the potential customer follow up with some questions. A pitch is not a place to list all your great features. No one wants to listen to this! Instead, focus on how your product can help them. Highlight what results they will get if they become users.
Objection
A potential customer will rarely be ready to buy right after your pitch. Then there will be some questions waiting for you. If you express that you strongly disagree with a potential client’s objection, that conversation will end. Therefore, listen carefully to what they have to say. Reposition your proposal to answer their questions. Listen to the sales objection, accept it, and offer a reasonable solution. If all goes well, it’s time to close the deal.
Closing
This stage of the B2B sales process should be the most exciting part for the customer. It shows that you have demonstrated the value of your product, addressed all cold call objections, and convinced them that your solution is an indispensable investment! Discuss prices and negotiate if necessary. It will help you to add free added value to the deal to overcome the obstacles standing in your way. You should also make sure that you discuss all the remaining steps and details before the end of the conversation, including talking about all the stakeholders who need to sign the agreement. This will ensure that there are no potential bumps along the way.
Follow up
You should now send the client a follow-up email. Making a good impression is one of the key points. Keep it professional and provide the next steps. Include a summary of your speech, a recording if possible, and additional useful information. Leaving the conversation on a positive note will allow the sales cycle to occur.
Check-in
Your potential customer has now become your permanent lead.
How to master B2B sales?
Considering that quality, continuity and profitability are the main objectives of businesses in every field, a good sales technique is indispensable for your business to identify the needs of the customers you serve in the best way and to respond to these needs in the fastest and most accurate way. In order to achieve this, if you cannot develop a suitable sales methodology for your business, you should choose one of the proven successes and develop your sales techniques accordingly. Here are some of the commonly used approaches:
- Challenger Sales Methodology
- SPIN Sales Methodology
- Miller Heiman Sales Methodology
- MEDDIC Sales Methodology
- Sandler Sales Methodology
Challenger Sales Methodology
The Challenger Sales Methodology is great anytime you’re solving unique problems, selling solutions in new markets, and creating significant disruption to the status quo in general.
If you’re trying to convince buyers that they should spend a lot of money on something they don’t see as a problem at all, or if they’re comfortable with their current hack, you should consider the Challenger. Learn more about the Challenger.
SPIN Sales Methodology
SPIN Sales methodology is great when you sell complex products or solutions that can solve a variety of business challenges. In other words, if you have a Swiss Army Knife type of product and you’re looking for the right problem for a buyer to solve, SPIN can be valuable. Learn more about SPIN.
Miller Heiman Sales Methodology
The Miller Heiman Sales Methodology works well when selling solutions where the seller or the entire sales team needs to take a more consultative approach to selling. When selling platform solutions that impact multiple teams and technologies and solve a variety of business problems, you may want to consider Miller Heiman. Learn more about the Miller Heiman Sales Methodology.
MEDDIC Sales Methodology
The MEDDIC Sales Methodology is perfect for sales teams selling products that require a deep understanding of a customer, their technologies, and complex purchasing environments. The MEDDIC Sales Methodology should always be considered as part of any used solution as its ability is unrivalled to qualify leads.
Click MEDDIC Checklist to learn more about.
Sandler Sales Methodology
The Sandler Sales Methodology is suitable for complex deals that take a long time to sell. If your sales cycle takes a year or more, the ability to build and develop relationships will be critical to success. In that case consider Sandler, or at least Sandler’s aspects. Learn more about the Sandler Sales Methodology
To sum up, after implementing a B2B sales strategy framework in your startup company, several other methodologies can be useful for you depending on your product. To understand which methodology is the best for your product, you can check them out with deeper research and add more value to your company.
